PCSB - Friendship PCS Acquisition of Eagle Academy PCS Suzanne Wells
/DC Public Charter School Board Hearing
August 14, 2024
Friendship PCS Acquisition of Eagle Academy PCS
Testimony of Suzanne Wells
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Friendship Public Charter School (PCS) proposed acquisition of Eagle Academy PCS.
Charter schools are public schools, and there should be proper oversight of their operations and open public meetings when important issues are being considered. The Friendship PCS Amendment Application raises serious concerns about how it came to be that Friendship would acquire Eagle Academy. There are 70 LEAs in DC. What kind of public process was in place to decide that Friendship PCS is the best LEA to acquire the assets of Eagle Academy? There are many other LEAs that have high quality early childhood programs that could also manage the Eagle Academy programs. Furthermore, who made the decision to allow the Eagle Academy campuses to remain open rather than being closed after the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) raised concerns about the financial stability of Eagle Academy?
Two meetings where decisions presumably were made about the future of Eagle Academy, theJuly 12, 2024, meeting of the Friendship Board of Trustees, and the July 18, 2024, meeting of the Eagle Academy Board of Trustees were both closed sessions that were not open to the public.
There are also serious questions about who controls the Eagle Academy facilities, particularly the Congress Heights campus. The Friendship application glosses over the facility questions by simply saying it will “lease the proposed facilities.” The Congress Heights campus is currently leased to Eagle Academy by the DC Department of General Services (DGS). The terms of the lease say that the tenant shall not transfer the lease without the consent of the landlord. Has the DGS agreed to this lease transfer? The Congress Heights facility is a former DCPS facility, and was DCPS given the opportunity to determine if it needs this facility to address swing space issues it is currently facing? Furthermore, both the Capitol Riverfront and Congress Heights campuses were renovated. One can only assume there are outstanding loans for both of these renovations. What remains to be paid, and who is going to pay it?
Eagle Academy for years has had financial concerns. It’s chief executive in SY2018-19 had the second highest executive officer pay of any charter school in the city making more than either the DC Mayor or the DCPS Chancellor. The PCSB has a responsibility to ensure financially responsible operation of public charter schools. While I understand the concern for the continuity of education for the nearly 400 students attending Eagle Academy, financial issues impacting the entire city deserve a much more judicious decision making process than appears to be currently in place.
There are two other issues I ask the PCSB to consider if it decides to approve Friendship’s application. First, does Friendship taking over Eagle Academy meet the My School DC guidelines? There was not proper notification in My School DC that Friendship would be running Eagle Academy. Presumably, families applied in the lottery to attend the programs offered by Eagle Academy not the programs offered by Friendship. Has My School DC been notified of the PCSB’s plans to transfer the Eagle assets to Friendship, and do they believe this meets their guidelines.
Second, Friendship is proposing to add two grades to the Congress Heights campus (grades 4 and 5). The PCSB assessed the number of already approved charter school seats with the projected student population growth through 2030. Based on updated population growth data, the PCSB has already approved charter school growth for more students than DC anticipates having over the next 10 years. Approving two additional grades at the Congress Heights campus will only make this situation worse.
https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/media/file/2024-08-
01%20Friendship%20Charter%20Amendment%20Application.pdf